advertisement


My Dog's health concerns

Gorgeous dog.

The lethargy and your mention of weight fits in with our experience of under active thyroid in our Tibetan. Big difference is we rescued Hunnibunni (yes, they really called her that) and we were told she was a fat, lazy dog. So, we'd never experienced her being an active, lively dog.

My wife (a nurse) picked up on the thyroid thing and vet confirmed it after a test.

I'm no vet but I'm sticking my neck out and going for underactive thyroid. I think Springers are particularly susceptible and the other symptoms you mention fit in. With this condition hair loss is sometimes mentioned as a symptom but our dog didn't have any issues there.
 
Thanks.

The thing with springers/sprockers is that they'll run all day even if they're not well so you have no idea that there's something wrong until they go home and lie down.

Rocco only runs about for two hours now but if I wanted to take him out for six or even eight then he would run about all of that time then go home and eat and sleep but previously, before the joint issue, he would want to keep going although he was much younger then but only a year really.

He's behaving like a much older dog IMO, one at the end of his life rather than at the start, I don't think two years is that old for a dog but he does seem to be seem acting like a much older dog.

One of the things that I've noticed in the past month is that during our walks he now carries a ball round with him in his mouth and sort of walks along side me or a runs bit out in front whereas previously, for the last year, when we went on walks I would take two balls and he would chase one and drop it for me then run after the other one and did this constantly but he's more or less stopped chasing the balls now.

Tony
 
I thought the raw bone thing excluded chickens, but am probably wrong.

If you were living in France or anywhere near the New Forest I'd think ticks also might be the cause of the lethargy, but it is only a guess. Your vet will probably find out in 10 minutes what the trouble is - and charge you for an hour's consultation anyway !


Anyway, I hope it isn't too serious.
 
avole said:
I thought the raw bone thing excluded chickens, but am probably wrong.

If you were living in France or anywhere near the New Forest I'd think ticks also might be the cause of the lethargy, but it is only a guess. Your vet will probably find out in 10 minutes what the trouble is - and charge you for an hour's consultation anyway !


Anyway, I hope it isn't too serious.
Click to expand...

Think you have to be careful with raw pork and the bones cause they're soft but chicken and beef and the bones appear to be fine, dog's have really strong acidic bacteria in their gut (think its like hydrochloric acid) which basically dissolves their food including the bones. I once gave him a cooked chicken leg and was holding onto the leg bone to feed him the chicken meat and he just swallowed the leg whole including the leg bone I was holding onto (he was really quick) and I panicked, phoned the vet who told me to keep a look out for the bone in his poos but I never did find it so can only presumed that it dissolved.

Re the tick thing then that is a possibility because he swims anywhere, rivers, duck ponds, pools, streams etc etc and at this time of the year the water is either stagnant or has algae growths or is just plain filthy. I walk him in a huge country park above Glasgow and there are countless small pools and streams which he's never out of so Lymes disease is a possibility too.

I'm just back from our walk, I walked for about 5kms in just under two hours, he's been fed his breakfast, been washed and is now sleeping which is pretty much routine.

He's zonked.

https://www.dog-nutrition-naturally.com/dog-digestive-system.html

30if1co.jpg
 
Hope you get it sorted. A 2yo dog is still an adolescent so it should be as fit as, well, a butcher's dog. Especially a spaniel, they are hunting dogs and usually tireless. I remember my dad's tale of taking our retriever for a long walk as a yuong dog, he said he was out all day, covered 25 miles and got in knackered, she had done twice that as she was up and down looking at everything en route. Upon arrival at the house, she got in and crashed out, Great, thought my dad. I've done it. I've walked a retriever until it has had enough. Some while later he got up to make a cup of tea and said "walkies?" Yeah, you bet, she was up and at 'em, all set to do it all again. He admitted defeat, took her for a stroll around the block and then returned to the sofa for a sit down.
 
stevec67 said:
Hope you get it sorted. A 2yo dog is still an adolescent so it should be as fit as, well, a butcher's dog. Especially a spaniel, they are hunting dogs and usually tireless. I remember my dad's tale of taking our retriever for a long walk as a yuong dog, he said he was out all day, covered 25 miles and got in knackered, she had done twice that as she was up and down looking at everything en route. Upon arrival at the house, she got in and crashed out, Great, thought my dad. I've done it. I've walked a retriever until it has had enough. Some while later he got up to make a cup of tea and said "walkies?" Yeah, you bet, she was up and at 'em, all set to do it all again. He admitted defeat, took her for a stroll around the block and then returned to the sofa for a sit down.
Click to expand...

Thanks no it's not normal IMO despite me not having any experience of dogs for a long time.

Meant to say in an earlier post that I contacted the vet this morning so he's going on Friday to see the vet who has attended him the most since he was nine weeks old as she knows his history, even though it's all on the computer, and apparently he won't be given his booster jabs or kennel cough vaccination until she's examined him properly and she'll likely do a blood test on Friday.

He's had a lot of vet appointments in the last year or so (down to his elbow) and I mean a lot which is another reason why we've held back not for monetary reasons (he's insured) just don't want to be seen as a neurotic dog owner but there is a fine line.
 
No question but that you’re right to want to flag this up. You know your own dog’s behaviour, and changes in that pattern are best not ignored if they persist longer than a few weeks, ie give it enough time to check that it’s not just a bug/virus that they’ll get over in the usual way.

He looks like a beautiful dog, hope you get him sorted very soon.
 
Always feed your pooch after walking and never before, also raw chicken bone is fine, lovely looking dog, good luck.
 
He does seem to be getting plenty of exercise. As pet-sitters we’ve looked after quite a few spaniels - as others say they LOVE to run but they all have limits and we often see the tiring (ie slowing down from a sprint to a jog) after maybe an hour or so. Yours is in his prime, looks great and definitely right to seek vet’s advice. I absolutely love spaniels - good luck and let us know any news.
 
ian123running said:
He does seem to be getting plenty of exercise. As pet-sitters we’ve looked after quite a few spaniels - as others say they LOVE to run but they all have limits and we often see the tiring (ie slowing down from a sprint to a jog) after maybe an hour or so. Yours is in his prime, looks great and definitely right to seek vet’s advice. I absolutely love spaniels - good luck and let us know any news.
Click to expand...

Thanks, he was a bit dodgy tonight after his meal, usually we take him out straight after feeding cause he poos almost immediately he's been fed (except after his breakfast after the morning walk) but tonight my daughter was taking him out for a walk so she had got get herself organised which took up a wee bit of time by which time he had gone into the garden to poo then a wee run about in the garden for maybe five minutes then he started panting again quite heavily so my wife made him go and take a drink (amazing what you can get a dog to do) and he lay down for a good ten minutes but then my daughter had him out for an hour afterwards but she kept his exercise down to the minimum so just a walk and a short swim in the duck pond and when he came home he was fine, no panting, and he never went to sleep straight away.

The weather was hot and sunny here tonight. There's definitely something going on though and it's always at night and after his dinner albeit tonight the panting was only for maybe ten minutes following a five minute run about in the garden.
 
Lovely dog.

My first thought is a tick / Lyme's (but it could of course be many things).

Agree raw food in chicken should be no problem. Lady, my 9 yr old dog, has a bone & some raw meat every day - the enamel on her teeth was not well-formed, the only one in her litter so affected - so I think max calcium is important. Hope your vet can sort it out. Our vet is a naturopathic vet as well as a traditional one and has on occasion "rebalanced" Lady's system, including once for excessive panting. Putting aside the challenges of surreptitiously adding revolting-tasting Chinese herbs to her food, it usually appears to have a beneficial effect !
 
Hi guys, yes vet this afternoon, not much change really although the panting at night hasn’t been as bad these past couple of nights.

But he’s still sleeping and tired out.

I was speaking to a fellow dog walker yesterday who has two young springers about a year old (brothers) and who both look in amazing condition, the guy said that he walks them twice a day for up to three hours total most days and that they’re outside for eight hours on other days he has them up the mountains or hills and that they don’t sleep excessively.

Although Rocco was wired to the moon at that age so they might calm down when they get older but it was an interesting chat.

Tony
 
hope it goes ok...

was at a wedding last weekend (4 night affair) and for 2 of the days there were various spaniels there and despite the heat they were running around the grounds (Crayke manor) all day and virtually non stop...some were getting on in age too... first time I'd really seen this before and it was almost instinctive and great to see.. :)
 
Hi guys, just back from the vet and she examined him physically and said that there doesn’t appear to anything wrong with him.

She said that the panting can be caused by an over active thyroid but that he would be over weight and lethargic all of the time and as he’s not overweight and active when he’s on a walk so she has ruled this out in the meantime.

She said the sleeping thing is fine as long as he’s active on a walk and that she isn’t concerned about that either but we’ve to keep monitoring him regarding the panting and if we’re still concerned then she’ll take bloods and do a chest X-ray.

He was blood tested last year for Addison’s disease during the diagnosis for his elbow dysplacia and nothing showed up then so the vet thinks it unlikely that anything has changed in that regard.

We’ve just to cut his night time excerise back a bit when it’s hot like it’s been this past month.

And, we’ve to keep an eye on his weight although she did say that he was in very good condition weight wise.

He’s obviously doing plenty of excercise on his morning walks which is enough to zonk him out for the rest of the day.

Thanks guys.

Tony
 
Last edited:
Delighted to read.
I can’t help thinking a few bloods are in order but at least it’s nothing acutely apparent to a vet.
Have a good weekend with him!!
 
Yes, sounds like good news and I hope it's maybe just a virus or something and he'll be fit as a flea again soon, but if not, I'd get those bloods and chest X-Ray done if I were you. Or get a second opinion.
 
doctorf said:
Delighted to read.
I can’t help thinking a few bloods are in order but at least it’s nothing acutely apparent to a vet.
Have a good weekend with him!!
Click to expand...

Thanks, to be honest I think the vet was actually saying that there's nothing wrong with him * that I can see* so don't waste your money on blood tests at this moment but by all means come back if you want to investigate further.

She's a great vet and has known Rocco since he was nine weeks old so I trust her totally.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top